Grover Norquist: Problem Is ‘Too Much Spending,’ Not That ‘Peasants Aren’t Sending Enough Money’ To DC

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist appeared on Monday’s Starting Point, making his case for extending tax cuts in the fact of the looming “fiscal cliff.”

“There’s a compromise to be made,” he told host Soledad O’Brien. “Maybe we don’t get as much in spending restraint as the Republicans want, but raising taxes on a little bit, doesn’t solve the problem of the massive spending problem that we have. Doesn’t get spending down, it just raises taxes.”

O’Brien then read a bit from Norquist’s “taxpayer protection pledges” for the House and Senate, which she described as “fairly stringent.”

“Do you worry,” she asked him, “that, for the folks who signed this pledge, you’ve now bound their hands in any kind of negotiation?”

The pledge, he says, is not to him, but rather to “the American people.” Furthermore, “the problem is too much spending,” Norquist adds. “The problem is not that the peasants aren’t sending enough money into Washington.”